Noe A. Figueroa

Cracked Corner

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“People never tire of recalling that Leonardo da Vinci advised painters who lacked inspiration when faced with nature, to contemplate with a reflective eye the crack in an old wall.”   The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

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Design Statement: To be inspired by the cracked corners inside an old wall

 

A corner, defined as a place or angle where two or more sides or edges meet. In the chapter on the corner in ‘The Poetics of Space’ By Gaston Bachelard, he emphasizes the significance of the corner as a space of intimacy and symbol of solitude for the imagination. Using the corner condition to either liberate or confine the imagination, it carries qualities that suggest space beyond the edges of where the planes meet. This infinite tension where imaginary planes intersect is accurately described in the following quote; “People never tire of recalling that Leonardo da Vinci advised painters who lacked inspiration when faced with nature, to contemplate with a reflective eye the crack in an old wall”.

 

The crack is the focus of this installation by intriguing the viewer and to highlight the tense space where the edges meet and merge to provoking inspiration. The design emerges from two grounded 90-degree corner as they connect and then transitions into a continuous enclosure, yet liberating experience. By using the edges as a visual guide into the centerpiece of the installation, the backlit cracked interior illuminates the contained space as a symbol of the immense imaginary universe.